.wk1.Giant.Brains.

1) How was unique about Charles Babbage Analytical Engine, compared to his original Difference Engine?

The Difference Engine was a mechanized computer with wheels and shafts used to calculate numbers mechanically. It could only calculate by a measure of difference. The Analytical Engine was capable of doing many different things. It operated on a central processing unit with conjoining storage units. The machine would be programmable using punch cards.

2) What role did Ada Lovelace play in the development of the Analytical Engine?

Ada Lovelace was a great supporter of Babbage. She published notes on the Analytical Engine with detailed programs of what the Engine could do. Because of this she is considered the first programmer.

3) How was the ENIAC computer reprogrammed?

It was programmed by people and it had to be completely rewired to be reprogrammed. Setting up switches and reconnecting cables, basically re-building the machine for each new problem you'd like to solve.

4) Name an innovation that helped make programming faster post ENIAC

Programming became faster once they realized how to create stored program computers. Transistors allowed the design of more complex systems. Specific programming languages like FORTRAN and COBOL allowed for wider creation and use of new programs.

5) What is it about binary counting that makes it so well suited to computers?

It uses only 2 digits which can be represented very simply by a switch. On = 1, Off = 0. It's the simplest form of calculations. Binary numbers can be added and subtracted by a combination of hundreds of switches.

6) In what ways did UNIVAC influence the portrayal of computers in popular culture in the 1950s? Give an example.

Univac changed the public view of computers through. Before, people saw them as huge systems only useable by scientific laboratories, governments. and large business. Univac, after being sold to Remington-Rand, appeared in movies and on TV allowing the public to see their use in all types of electronic and personal home devices.

7) Codebreaking required the automatic manipulation of symbols to unscramble messages during WWII. What was the name of the rudimentary computer at Bletchley Park in England that unscrambled Nazi codes.

Enigma and then Colossus.

8) Alan Turing who understood the implications of such machines later went on to describe them as universal machines.

9) Describe when you first used computers and what types of tasks you performed on them.

I didn't come across my first computer until pretty late in computer development. As a freshman in High School in 1995 I took a typing class as an elective. The course used very basic word processing machines. Shortly after the school's library bought a small number of computers that I began using during lunch and study halls. They were connected to the internet and I used them for research purposes mostly.

Around 1998/9 I discovered geocities and built myself a little generic website to share with friends. Around this time I mostly used computers at school for email, chat, and personal research purposes. I saved a lot of random files on floppy discs. My parents bought their first computer for home around 2000 and I bought my first after I'd been in college for a few years in 2002. It was an Apple g4 powerbook that still works great to this day, just a little slow for more modern programs.

10) How restricted do you think computers are in terms of what they can do compared to how they are most often used?

I dont think computers in this day and age are restricted at all. The limitations to what you can and can not do with computers is set by the individual, by programmers and software developers, and by governmental regulations. Most people just have no desire to learn about all millions of uses. They have a limited view of their computer need and are satisfied to learn those specific things.

Computers are developed for an infinite number of tasks that the mass populous just doesn't consider in general. Obviously there is a limit because they are not biological organisms, but in terms of mechanized equipment, they are only limited by the developers creativity.